It's A Tuesday...But It Feels Like A Monday

Hi everyone,

With yesterday being a day off for Mr. K. We didn't do much...

Except assemble a side table which required a trip to a hardware store (long story...we'll just say that pre-drilled bolt holes aren't always the best and sometimes a little ingenuity, a call to your dad, and a friend with good jerry-rigging skills are necessary).

Oh but I put a vinyl sticker onto my laptop! I now won't confuse Mr. K's work computer with my own. Bad idea when he works on secret stuff.

The computer is named Bogie. We thought Casablanca appropriate.

And I did grocery shopping which involved meeting a friend and chatting for an hour and a half over coffee...then proceeding to do the shopping.
Followed by a trip to drop off some reinforcements to another friend with a sick little girl.

But my biggest acheivement was finishing revising the rest of my novel. I managed to sew up the loose threads in my plot and so it's completed.

My goal is to submit to agents by the end of this week. It gives me a few days to work on my query letter and synopsis. Both of which strike fear into my heart.
I know. I know.

All writers should be able to summarize their novel into a logline. And yes, you'd be absolutely right.
What no one says is that it's very nearly the hardest thing to do, especially when you have lots of twists and turns in your work.

But do it we must, and therefore, so must I.

So, to get into the writing spirit I've decided to put up some pictures of my puppy playing in the snow. I can refer to this again later when I've come to the conclusion that synopses and I don't ever get along on the first go.

Voila!

This is my puppy.

She used to look like this:

But she loves snow.

Have I mentioned she likes snowballs?

Watching, ever watching.

She also likes little tennis balls that squeak.
And every now and again she jumps just so, that her ears flop like they used to when she was much younger. It's hard being 1 year old.

But my favorite is when she's the shifty-eyed dog.

It's almost as if she's saying, "Yes, go ahead. Trust me."

Saucy smiles for all.

At anyrate, she's our dufus and we wouldn't want her any other way.

Now back to work.

Until next time,
Bisous!

Sledding!

Hi everyone!

Let me just start out saying that sledding is the best pastime ever.

Ever.

No, I don't care if you're sore and tired the next day...

Okay, maybe I do because I feel your pain.

But it's still fun!

Here, I'll show you:

We went sledding with the C family. They have good sleds (very important) and a tube.

And they also know THE spot for sledding.

M and S on the hill! Go guys go!

Mr. C doing his best streamlined sledding.

Mr. K showing me his great balancing skills.

He also did the streamlined sledding technique.

The backwards tubing technique...I don't recommend it.

You end up leaning A LOT.

It looks like he's on nothing, but he's got the slimline sled. Very cool, Mr. C.

But what is this? S is ready to take the MONSTER HILL!

She caught major air time, which you can't really see. Those lines are hills. And the main hill was steep.

Attack of the Bearded Viking!

He took the seated approach to the hills. Still caught air though.

And an attempt at a group shot while sipping hot chocolate.

Take 1!

Hmmm...a little blurry.
Take 2!

Better but the only one looking is the small one.

Oh well back to sledding.
Turned just in time to catch Mr. K whizzing by.

The tube on the big hill was our favorite.
Must do it again soon.

Until next time!
Bisous

Galette des Rois Recipe

Hi everyone! 

Today I'll be giving you the best recipe for Galette des Rois (Three Kings' Cake).

You can serve this from January 6th up until February. 

Celebrate Epiphany to the max, I say!

Here we go:

Ingredients

For the Crust:

2 sheets of puff pastry, thawed

1 egg yolk, beaten

2Tbsp sugar

For the Filling:

125g (1/2 cup + 1Tbsp) butter, softened

125g (a little less than 2/3 cup) sugar

125g (1 cup) ground almonds or almond meal

2 eggs, at room temperature

5ml (1tsp) almond extract or rum extract (I used almond)

1 fève (small porcelain piece) or whole almond

Steps:

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and the sugar. Then add the eggs one at a time. Mix in the almond meal. Then lastly, add the extract. Mix together well and set aside.

With your puff pastry sheets, cut a large round out of one and a slightly smaller round from the other. To the larger round, add the filling and spread it out, leaving about a 2 inch border from the edge. 

Place your fève or whole almond on the filling and near the edge.

Place the other smaller puff pastry round on top and press the pastry gently against the filling so as to get rid of any air bubbles and also making sure you have a border. Fold the lower edge over the smaller crust and crimp together like you would a double crust pie. Poke a hole in the middle of top pastry to allow steam to escape. 

Use a knife to score a design onto the pastry being careful not to poke through the pastry. Brush with beaten egg yolk, covering the edges too.

Refrigerate 30 minutes.

In an oven preheated to 200C (395F- not adjusted for high altitude- if in the mountains add ten degrees) bake for about 20-25 mins (about 25-30 mins for high altitude).

It should be a rich golden color when it's done. Think a little darker than you normally do for cakes.

Mine ended up a little underdone and had to go back in. 

(Note: If you take it out and the puff pastry falls or in my case if you cut into it and the center is oozing...it's underdone.)

Almost time to assemble!

Our fèves from France. We used the 40s lady this year.

Ooops. Didn't seal the edges well enough and had too much filling!
That's what happens when you only use one puff pastry sheet and try to get two rounds ovals out of it.

Oops. Looks ugly right now but it sure smells heavenly.

If that happens to you, just trim the excess off.
No one'll be the wiser.
And the fève will still be in the galette.

Then, once you have your galette cooled to room temperature, serve it up!

Traditions vary. Some have the youngest member of the family go under the table and say which piece of galette should go to whom. Some just cut the galette and set it out on plates and let you choose. Some do it where the one who cuts gets whatever piece the other says.

However you choose to do it, the fun part is when you find the fève/almond. You are crowned king/queen for the day and keep the fève and everyone else in your family must obey your wishes (within reason) for the rest of the day.

Happy eating!
Bisous!

Christmas, New Year's, and Other Things

Hi all!

I feel like every year the holidays sneak up on me. Well, this year was no different. Except...

We got to go to Florida for Christmas!

Yes. 85 degree weather is glorious when you come from the frozen tundra of New Mexico.
Oh and it snowed the night before we left for FL.

I love the mesas covered in snow...but well, we needed warmth.
So to FL we went.

The FL airport had a Christmas Tree vote going on 

Funny thing about seeing family...sometimes it's all about the pictures...

And other times it's not.

We have no pictures from Christmas Day with family. But we had a lot of fun seeing everyone again. It was a year so different from any other but I'm so thankful to have been able to see everyone.

It was also fun catching up with a few friends from high school in the short time we were there.

Anywho, the next day Mr. K and I drove to Walt Disney World for a much needed break for my mom and some fun in the sun with my sis and an old friend.

I love this shot. My mom and I chose the same color nail polish without the other knowing. Plus, beach.

Mother-daughter shot.

While waiting for a dinner reservation in the Beach Club resort we found a life size gingerbread carousel.
It turned too!

Complete with chocolate shaving manes and tails. And hidden mickeys...which we found all of them.

 Oh, and of course I had to know the proportions needed to make such an epic creation.
Voila!

They measured the eggs in PINTS. All I could think of was "They come in pints?!" from Lord of the Rings.

Well after dinner, we all went back to the villa for some fun with opening our presents.

I love this shot. Captured the spirit completely!

The next day Mom, Mr. K, and myself woke up early to get to the Magic Kingdom early before the crowds came....hahaha. We still had an hour's wait at the new Dwarf Mine Train ride at 8:15am.

But it was worth it.

Had to get the castle pic!

We toured around the rest of the day, enjoying some new treats (LeFou's Brew in Gaston's Pub is great, by the way. A must try!) and catching up with Mr. K's brother, C, and his wife, H, and her family.

Then K and CC met up with us in the afternoon and Mr. K and I begged off to go see Epcot on our own. But we got to do some shopping and LeFou-ing with them before we left.

LeFou-ing is a new word I made up. We had the Brew with them and talked and laughed.
I'm going to keep it.

Anyway, this is a great shot of us!

I forgot that you can actually wear the sunglasses and not just keep them as a headband. Oops.

Well, off to Epcot we went. It was less crowded mainly because it wasn't the Magic Kingdom and we were only interested in the countries.

Not really sure what these are supposed to be...maybe snowflakes?

And of course, the ball.

Well, we ended up staying a little later than we planned and had to eat dinner. Italy has some great food, by the way. Just saying.

And it's worth the splurge to eat at the fancy restaurant. They serve you water, focaccia bread and olive oil, and massive olives right when you sit down.
Sadly necessary in our case as both of us had let our blood sugars get too low.
But the pasta dishes were great and the wine the waiter recommended was delicious.

After that we milled around maybe a half hour before heading back to the Magic Kingdom.
We'd originally thought we'd meet up with my family again, but they'd left for the villa to relax.
However, we got to meet up with C and H and their family for the Electric Light Parade!

Oh, and the castle was all "frozen" for the holidays.

Then the parade began.

Fun fact: The floats originated in Disneyland and were shipped to Disney World for the parade. They are the original ones. Kinda cool!

Other fun fact: the music sticks in your head for a VERY long time after the parade.

I thought this float pretty nice. Salute to those who protect our country.

And then I said "selfie" and somehow three others appeared in the shot!

Didn't manage to get a shot of H's family, but I had a blast with them. Lots of fun!

And all too soon it was over. And we flew back on a rocky flight, but thanks to the pilots, we landed.
Even if Albuquerque was covered in frozen fog.

Luckily, we had already planned to stay the night nearby in a hotel, otherwise the one in the morning drive would have been a lot worse if we'd had to go back home.

The next day I had a trick up my sleeve and took Mr. K to the St. James Tea Room.

They had a Nutcracker themed high tea and it was exactly what we needed to rejuvenate ourselves.

They never cease to amaze me with the decor and the spread.

We love that place.
And yes, the sugar plum tea actually sparkled.

It was so cozy in there. We almost fell asleep.

Well...almost.
Until we had the scones. (To die for!)

And dessert.
There's always room for that.

Scrumptious!

Then we made our way home. And prepared for New Year's Eve.

We went to a party at a friend's house which was a lot of fun and we got to have some yummy spicy cheese dip. Thank you, S!
Then we made the long 100ft journey back home to our house where a few friends came over with their pup to play games and such.

Mid-gaming, I asked Mr. K for a photo...I should have known this would happen.

Other other fun fact: When you live in Mountain Time, TV times are hit or miss. Most of the time I think they flip a coin and decide when they'll show a time based on which side it lands.

Meaning: They forgot to televise the ball dropping for Mountain Time folks.

We did see it for the East Coast at 10pm. And at 11pm. And we just had to hold out one more hour past midnight to see it happen for the West Coast.

Mountain Time gets no love.

Anyway, "Happy New Year!" we said and had a toast.

And even the pups got into the spirit.

Our paper crowns made great regal collars for the girls.

And well...that's it for now!

Oh yeah, a resolution:

I am making a resolution to be better at updating.

And at writing everyday at least four times a week.

Until next time,

Bisous!